A squad of Indiana high school alumni could create a pretty good NBA lineup.

Sports Illustrated's list of top NBA players includes three former Indianapolis-area high school stars: North Central's Eric Gordon (49th), Hamilton Southeastern's Gary Harris (44th) and Lawrence North's Mike Conley (36th). This list included Nos. 50-31, so Brownsburg's Gordon Hayward is likely on the way.

On Gordon (Rockets)

May 24, 2018; Houston Rockets guard Eric Gordon (10) reacts during the fourth quarter in game five of the Western conference finals of the 2018 NBA Playoffs against the Golden State Warriors at Toyota Center.(Photo: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports)

Houston has stretched every bit of Gordon’s (18.0 PPG, 2.5 RPG, 2.2 APG) game to its logical extreme. Gordon is remarkably strong for a guard, which means that the Rockets trust him to hold his own defensively against far bigger players. Opponents respect Gordon’s perimeter shooting, so Houston stations him far beyond the three-point arc to clear room for its pick-and-rolls—perhaps at the expense of Gordon’s three-point percentage. What used to be a more balanced shot profile has since polarized; in a fashion suiting Houston’s guiding principles, Gordon now takes well over 60% of his shots from beyond the arc. What mid-range shots he takes are largely provisional—products of when Gordon is asked to create some offense for himself.

Coming home: Rockets visit the Pacers on Monday, Nov. 5.

On Harris (Nuggets)

In the past year, Harris (17.5 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 2.9 APG) proved that he can not only produce within an offense but give it structure. Dribble hand-offs between Harris and Nikola Jokic were as fundamental to Denver’s flow as any other mechanism. Jokic makes Harris look good, but the opposite is also true; a beautiful backdoor feed is only as effective as the cutter who inspires it.

Part of what makes Harris so elusive is that you can never be sure where he’s going. Kyle Korver knows how to move without the ball but only has designs to move away from the basket. Andre Roberson is similarly unidirectional, albeit on the opposite track; the only time a defense even pays attention to Roberson’s movement is when he’s headed toward the rim. Harris is a dual threat and more. He could cut off a screen or reject it, move toward the ball or away from it, fake hard in any one direction before reversing course for the other, and take any angle he likes after finally receiving the ball. This is the predicament involved when a player shoots 72% within three feet of the rim and 40% beyond the arc. There is no safe assumption a defender can make —only the tireless work of chasing Harris everywhere he goes.

Coming home: Nuggets visit the Pacers on Sunday, March 24.

On Conley (Grizzlies)

Were there no concern for injury, Conley—a two-way, All-Star-level guard—would rank far better than he does here. To actually follow through on that ranking, however, would require rationalizing away the 109 games that Conley missed over the past three years. There is no single, chronic injury at work but an assortment of seemingly unrelated issues. The latest was a bone intrusion in his left heel, addressed through surgery back in January. Conley is as resilient as athletes come, but his resilience is also tested more often than most. Any predictive ranking must account for that, particularly with Conley now in his early 30s.

This disclaimer is made with the full knowledge that a healthy Conley is a freaking terror. Very few point guards can match his creative depth; Conley has the handle and quickness to go anywhere he wants on the floor, not to mention the skill and touch to score when he gets there. Conley’s game is setups on setups on setups. What looks like an actual move—and would be in lesser hands—is really just prologue, scripted to set expectations for the sole purpose of defying them. By the time Conley’s defender realizes they’re stuck in the blender, it’s already too late.

There’s no weak hand to shade, and no range at which you can give Conley space. The last time we saw Conley really do his thing, he was bombing away from beyond the arc with the frequency of Kyrie Irving, Donovan Mitchell, and Devin Booker—all while hitting better than 40%. His array of runners is the envy of the league. Some scoring option is always available to him, though Conley is perfectly willing to move the ball and defer to the offense. The most dangerous moment in guarding Conley comes then: At the moment of exhale, before it clicks that he only gave up the ball to get it back on a dribble hand-off.